If you do not like the success of Free Software in Munich, what could you
do? You could play on emotions and spread rumours that the Munich IT people are
not taking the demands of regular users nor the executive into account. Of
course, you have to stay vague, hoping to bring out a few of those voices that
are always unhappy - but this is an easy way of discrediting the progress
already made. This is what happened in the last months in Munich with remarks
by the new mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD, Social Democrats) and his vice Josef
Schmid (CSU, Christian Democrats). Some commentators have speculated about a
connection to the fact that Microsoft is now moving its headquarter from
Unterschleissheim to Munich, and Reiter
claiming that he helped with this deal (in German). As Microsoft was the biggest
tax payer in Unterschleissheim (in German), Munich will financially benefit
by this move.

But they seem to have underestimated the success of Free Software in Munich.
IT
experts from their own political parties raised their voice to correct them
and others have uncovered their
misleading statements. Thus, the comments by the mayors represent only
individual opinions. Munich's political support for GNU/Linux is strong, and
the money the city saves and will continue to save by using GNU/Linux,
LibreOffice/OpenOffice, and the Desktop from KDE counts profoundly. If Free
Software can even survive a smear campaign by the mayors it shows that it is
there to stay. Dear Free Software community: be proud and spread the
word! But do not rest, the next attack will be more subtle.

EU wide Open Standards policy

But the answer to the inquiry includes another crucial point: the problem
with document formats. The Munich IT managers noted that, at the beginning of
their migration, the German federal states and the federal government
highlighted the importance of Free Software and Open Standards, but afterwards
never consequently went this path.

In Germany, the lack of a clear Open Standard Policy is a major blocker for
public administrations to use Free Software. In recent years, other European
Countries such as Great Britain, France, Italy, and Sweden have done more to
promote Free Software and Open Standards.

Open Standard compliance checks

When institutions decide on Open Standards policies, this is just the first
step. It is important to check this decision and to remind them about it. In
2010 as a Document Freedom Day activity our Fellows in Cologne and Bonn checked the German
federal administrations after a decision that they have to be able to receive,
edit, and send back ODF. The FSFE found out that only 2 of 87 departments
are conforming to federal open document regulations. This highlights the
importance of being persistent and monitoring the implementation of such
policies. Check out this month's “Get active” item with a specific suggestion
how you can help with that within a few minutes.

Get active: Fix my document - ODF in EU bodies

The EU institutions still have a lot to do to remove barriers for Free
Software users. Together with Open Forum Europe (OFE) your editor had a meeting
with the IT responsible of the Commission, the Council, and the Parliament
about that. We discussed our letter on video
format and the campaign “FixMyDocuments.eu”. This campaign was started by
OFE to help EU institutions to implement their
decision to support Open Document Formats FSFE's volunteers already
translated the website in more languages, but now it is time for all of you to
act.

We would like you to find EU institutions who offer non-free
formats on their website, without also publishing those documents in ODT,
and then submit
them.

Furthermore OFE encourages and will support anyone who wants to use the
platform to cover other administrations.

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About FSFE

Free Software Foundation Europe is a charity that empowers users to
control technology.

Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our lives. It is important
that this technology empowers rather than restricts us. Free Software
gives everybody the rights to use, understand, adapt and share software.
These rights help support other fundamental rights like freedom of
speech, freedom of press and privacy.

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